Natasha’s Story for Jean Hailes

For Women’s Health Week 2025, Jean Hailes for Women’s Health needed to create something that would truly resonate with First Nations women around the theme Say yes to you. 

This couldn’t be another general health campaign. It needed to come from lived experience.

The reality was confronting: too many First Nations women face serious health challenges too soon. Jean Hailes needed a story that would honour this reality whilst inspiring women to prioritise their own health.

The brief: raw and human, not corporate or staged. It needed to work across multiple platforms and launch during Women’s Health Week, running from 1 to 5 September 2025.

Working with cultural partner Ethnolink, we found Natasha Smith, a proud Wiradjuri, Wemba Wemba, Barapa Barapa woman and mum of four. 

After discovering she carried a BRCA2 gene mutation and receiving a breast cancer diagnosis, Natasha transformed from a woman who spent her life saying yes to everyone else, to learning that saying yes to herself was an act of courage.

We kept production deliberately stripped back, capturing Natasha in her natural environment on Country. Ethnolink handled scripting, ensuring cultural authenticity throughout. 

The video reframes self-care within cultural values: “We are knowledge holders and our stories keep us safe.”